With Mario Kart, Zelda, and cross-buy games, Nintendo could turn the Wii U around

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Updated June 30th: We’re a year and a half into the Wii U’s lifespan, and the sales performance has been lackluster to say the least. Nintendo had lightning in a bottle with the original Wii, and it simply couldn’t replicate that same hype for the Wii U. However, the narrative seems to be changing — in Nintendo’s favor — recently. The house that Mario built had a surprisingly good showing at E3 this year, some heavy-hitting franchises are on the way, and the first cross-buy game just hit the eShop.

After the Wii hype train started to die down in the late 2000s, Nintendo began to struggle. The 3DS had to fight against the ever-growing market share of smartphones and tablets, and Wii U sales have been abysmal so far. Nintendo eventually got the 3DS back on the right track, but can it do the same thing with the Wii U? Can a number of hit first-party titles really turn the tables in Nintendo’s favor? After seeing what Nintendo has up its sleeves, I think the answer to those questions is “Yes.”

Now that the 3DS has a substantial install base, Nintendo can use its success to drive sales for the flagging Wii U. The very first cross-buy title, Squids Odyssey, has hit the EU eShop, and this could be the start of a trend towards a more consumer-friendly era of Nintendo. If this initial outing is a success, we might even see cross-buy make its way to the Virtual Console. Besides, who is going to pay for two copies of Balloon Fight? More cross-buy and cross-play titles for the Wii U and 3DS would go a long way towards fixing Nintendo’s image as a miserly tyrant of classic titles.

There’s reason to believe that Nintendo is doing right by its biggest franchises, though. An adaptor was recently announced that allows Gamecube controllers to be used on the Wii U — specifically designed for diehard Smash Bros. fans. Everything Eiji Aonuma said about the upcoming Zelda game points to a sincere reimagining of Nintendo’s most beloved franchise with a heavy Skyrim influence. Besides, Super Mario 3D World and the recent Mario Kart 8 release were both well-received across the board, so it’s clear Nintendo still has what it takes to maintain the games that matter the most to its fan base.

Until recently, Nintendo has largely ignored the Wii U gamepad’s touchscreen. Most of the time, the best you can hope for is off-TV gameplay or perhaps a touch-based inventory. Thankfully, it seems like Nintendo is finally taking advantage of this massive touchscreen in the center of the controller. Mario Maker uses the touchscreen to allow gamers to design their very own Super Mario Bros. levels. Sure, that could theoretically be done with a D-pad or analog stick, but it would be clunky and incredibly slow. Instead, you can tap and drag objects into place, and start playing your custom level with a push of a button.

Add that to the announcement of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, and the touchscreen is finally starting to make sense. In spite of its business failures, Nintendo is starting to make good on the promises of the Wii U’s unique hardware. It doesn’t have the horsepower of the PS4 or Xbox One, but it does have a lot of untapped novelty.

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I used the word seriously due to the console’s many fundamental flaws that ‘seriously’ cripple it’s prospects of turning things around, it is not even anywhere near probable.

First and foremost the console was way too pricey and does not offer enough gaming content for casual gamers which completely alienates the vast majority of the people who bought the original Wii.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

And do tell, what flaws do you think it has that seriously hamper it’s ability to turn things around?
Price? No, sorry. $299 is not too much money. It’s in line with what PS3 and 360 are selling for now in their best configurations, yet it offers more power and flexibility than either. You get good value for your $299.
Second, its content problem is simply a matter of releasing more quality content. What did they show at E3? A ton of quality content.
You’re looking at this through a very shallow lens. The Wii U, while not perfect (what system is?), is still a machine with plenty of horsepower and some very unique features. Nintendo just needs to leverage those features rather than ignore them, and from what we saw at E3, they’re finally starting to do just that.

Turing

$329 for a Wii U Deluxe, Mario Kart 8, another $40-50 game of your choice, and a Wii Remote Plus controller. That’s an awesome deal.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

Didn’t realize it also includes a Wii Remote Plus! That IS a good deal then!

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Justin

I took that deal – for those of us that had a Wii with a few games collecting dust, trading the Wii + the games we didn’t play anymore got us out the door at gamestop after trade in for far less than $329. I traded my old Wii, kept the Wii games my son still plays, and traded the rest of our Wii games + a few PS3 games (including DkS2), and walked out the door at gamestop with a Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundle + Wind Waker HD Download for $140.

Ooooh Yeeeeeah

The only flaw is that, I dont want to play the 20,000th Mario game or the 15,000 th Zelda. I;m sure its exciting for you, though.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

There have been fewer Zelda games in its nearly 30 year history than there have been Call of Duty games in the last 10. Moreover, unlike CoD and other FPS games, Nintendo’s various character based games tend to change up formula and do innovative new things to keep the games interesting. Not particularly true with Call of Dooby.

Paladinrja

Oh stop dribbling netderp. There are things going on in Woolie world alone that are first in gaming overall. No game EVER has displayed that many realtime transitionless transformations in a single frame in the history of gaming, let alone at that texture rate and fill.

LoZ U is doing math that no legacy x86 ISA could hope to do. Not just the proceedural terrain at such and alarming rate that there is no latency but Mist and Spray interacting with one another and the ground. I doubt you would understand the significance of just how hard it is to do that especially in a game. Look at the clouds, you have filtered shadows and light right through every layer in the clouds to the surface. Clouds that create realtime shadows.

This is the Wii U eDRAM at work, all that expanded instruction allows for math and pure straightforward calc that cannot be done on legacy platforms.

But the best thing yet? WOOLIEEEEE WORLD!!!

Volfos

Nintendo has admitted to screwing up their handling of it to some degree, the console itself is far from a failure however. They just need to target their core fan-base (anyone who think’s they’ve mobilized any more than ten percent of their fan-base so far is downright foolish).

Regardless, the PS2 itself proved that consoles don’t have to be the most powerful to sell insanely well and the PS3 proved that consoles can always turn things around. The fact Nintendo made a bollocks of their head-start sucks, but those ill effects can be negated with the right moves.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

True story: the most powerful console of any generation has never won that generation. Not once. Ever. The closest you could say one came is the original NES, which largely sat alone on shelves with no competition until the Sega Master System arrived.

Picnicl .

The SNES is technically the most powerful console of the 16 bit age and sold the most.

The NEO Geo which came out in 1990 advertised itself as 24 bit and the Jaguar and Panasonic 3DO which came out in 1993 advertised themselves as 32 bit, Sega’s 32X in 1994.

Some would say that the NEO Geo, along with the Sega CD released in 1991 are technically souped up 16 bit systems.
But when people talk about the 16 bit generation they only really mean Megadrive v SNES and the most powerful console sold the most although the Megadrive did sell more than the SNES in the UK.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

I stand corrected :). There’s one example :)

Picnicl .

Cheers Jason. Of course, the Megadrive still had the faster processor but the SNES was tech spec-wise better in all other respects. I still like a few more Megadrive games than SNES ones though.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

I look at it this way: both had some excellent games, and in the end, I’m glad to have played games on both :). If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that console war venom is pointless.

wolfman596

I dot think you remember the ps3 launch. Now look at it has the best library of games for the past generation and caught up to the 360 in sales. If Sony can do it so can nintendo

GoliothOnline66

The PS4 already has a 1 in 12 return rate as of last month. Sony and Microsoft both got gunned down at E3 with pretty much every new release they have coming out next year It’s sad that it sold on hype alone.. The Sony and Microsoft conventions at E3 pretty much doomed the consoles in terms of keeping their Hype. At least Nin HAS the first parties now, they have the announcements out for their releases this year AND they have the price advantage. I have a PS4 and the thing just collects dust =/ I’ll probably trade it in by the end of the month. I don’t need a fancy Blue Ray player that just HAPPENS to play games, games that don’t exist and won’t exist for another year and a half.Plus I can watch netflix on my GamePad :D

angh

“The PS4 already has a 1 in 12 return rate as of last month.”
Source?

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

1. Don’t trade in your PS4, that’s dumb. It’s worth keeping.
2. Mine also gathers dust most of the time, sadly, but the investment is already made, you’ll never get what you paid for it, and down the road you’ll want to have the thing, guaranteed.
That said, I agree that PS4 and Xbone sold primarily based on hype. That’s always true when a system launches. It was also true of Wii U, which wasn’t worth it at launch, but finally is :).

Phobos

Sony and MS doomed the consoles? The X1 maybe, but the PS4 and the Wii U I highly doubt it.

meddle0ne

I love the Wii U. It’s got great games, unique feature, it’s affordable, and you don’t have to re-buy controllers and games because their backward compatible. I really think the Wii U will do well in the long run.

XenoSilvano

you really ‘hope’ it will do well in the long run.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

No, he said he THINKS the Wii U will do well in the long run. Learn to read. There are plenty of reasons to think it will be successful, which means, really, that it’ll offer enough good games to justify a purchase, and that it’ll be profitable for Nintendo.
1. It’s backward compatible. No other current generation console is. That’ll give it some mileage (though I don’t think all that much, personally).
2. It’s powerful enough to deliver beautiful games. That much is incontrovertible.
3. Its library is finally reaching a point where it has enough games to justify a system purchase. At least a dozen own-worthy games are currently out for it, and more are on the way.
4. Pricing. Wii U is priced fairly and offers good value.
5. Forthcoming games: At E3 2014, we saw a steady lineup of interesting looking games, most with gorgeous graphics, coming throughout the rest of 2014 and 2015.
6. NFC finally getting used. Amiibos are a step in the right direction, and if they ensure they’ll work across a huge range of games rather than just one niche title, which they’ve already announced they will, they’ll find some success there, too.
There are plenty of reasons to THINK, not just HOPE, that Wii U will do well enough. Right now, it’s still ahead of Xbox One, and only about a million units behind PS4. It’s in no way doomed.

XenoSilvano

What the ####! Was that a blatant ad homonym wrapped in strawman just now?

I think you are the one who should stop being so presumptuous, the person misinterpreting things here is you.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

No, that was a litany of facts, and you should really learn the difference.

XenoSilvano

Missing the point, as usual.

Although I could get into a debate with you about the subject at hand which I would normally be more than glad to do, that insult to my intelligence that you tried to pull back there, however, really put me out of the mood, you are not worth my time.

For the sake of clarity, even though you already know this but choose to ignore it, my previous comment was not in regards to your ‘litany of facts’ as you like to call it but to the portion of your comment that proceeded it.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

Translation: “I don’t want to be confronted with facts, so I’ll just throw a bunch of polysyllabic words out and hope people think I’m more intelligent than I am.”

Guest

The autistic nintenyearolds are out in full force I see.

NonCasualGamer

What a poser. Go mindlessly rant somewhere else.

wolfman596

You get no pussy lol

WellWisher

Dude, if you’re going to play the big words game at least spell them correctly. It’s ‘ad hominem’. A homonym is something else entirely.

Ooooh Yeeeeeah

Who gives a fuck?

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

Apparently you do.

hghhj

xbone one is a complete failure and Sony is in trouble…..Nintendo is it, ….

paul

I really love Nintendo. But i guess you are right.
Don’t see Nintendo turning its ship with its current course.

But it is hard to tell these things when Nintendo die-hards wants to BELIEVE.
I hope Nintendo make better moves.

Phobos

Those guys at IGN video talk way too much, get to the damn point, but back to the article. I’m interesting in the Wii U, just waiting for them to lower the price, hopefully it will be soon.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

It’s frequently available for $249 with two games included. Right now, you can get it with Mario Kart 8 and your choice of another game download for $329. If you want, you can get it refurbished with Nintendo Land for $199 :)

Phobos

I’m not a very big fan of refurbish so I’, just going to wait until it drops to $199. It might not take long and maybe more good games will come up.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

Nothing wrong with refurb, especially in this case: It comes with the same full year warranty as brand new.

domahman

they will turn around 1 month before the ps5 comes out.

NonCasualGamer

What will? The ps4? Just like how the ps3 was garbage for 5 years.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

PS3 wasn’t garbage, it was just overpriced and badly designed (way too complex and unusual). That’s Krazy Ken Kutaragi’s doing. Probably the reason he got put out to pasture, too.

Guest

PS4 will remain 1st the entire gen, Xbox will eventually overtake Wii U as it has more momentum and developer support, but it might take a while.

Wii U’s loss of 3rd party support put it in Gamecube status at best.

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

Where are you getting this info from? Can you also get me the winning lotto numbers from next week? That’s a killer power you have there! Reminds me of how everyone knew the Wii was the death knell of Nintendo, and that PS3 would rape the 360’s graphics and installed base. I mean sure, none of those things ever happened, but hey, people *said* they would.

Guest

It’s not hard to look at sales trends.

PS3 ended with more hardware and software sales than 360, and the best looking games of the generation (The Last of Us, etc.)

http://www.uglybabystudios.com/ JasonGW

PS3’s sales numbers are neck and neck with 360. Both are well behind Wii. Moreover, PS3 never pulled substantially ahead with graphics. Both it and Xbox 360 delivered gorgeous games right up to the end.

NonCasualGamer

HA! Best looking games my ass. Is that why every single multiplat looked better and played better on a year old console?

Guest

Multiplats started running the same or better on PS3 as of a few years ago. Including GTA V.

Zunalter

So, the only issue with your sales graphs comparing PS3 to Wii-U is that the scales of the graphs are quite different. The PS3 hovered around 300-500K/month at its low, the Wii-U is bouncing between 100-200K.

hghhj

Wii u sales are up huge….to you haters on here your a joke…xbone one is a complete fail…..and will never catch up ……the Wii u made sony and xbone one look at fools at the event this year…..

Ray C

LOL posts like this are too funny. Sales need to be up more than this short sample time for anyone to know anything.

Mark

1.2 million copies of mario kart sold in just 3 days. But only 20% of wii u owners bought the game. Thats means 80% of 1.2 million were the CONSOLE BUNDLE SOLD IN 3.DAYS. thats about 800.000 consoles sold in just 3 days worldwide. So how manu consoles will be sold by june 30th? Well over a million..thats a huuuuuge jump. And that will continue theu all of summer. It will go down each month but still sell massive number of units. While xbone sold 4.8 million units. There collecting dust at my walmart! Nintendo should NEVER BE UNDERESTIMATED!

Daniel

I love Nintendo but I think you’re misunderstanding the whole % thing… 20% of Wii U owners buying the game would be approximately 1.2 million sales, given that there are roughly 6 million Wii U owners out there. The release of Mario Kart 8 did see a MASSIVE relative increase in hardware sales but you are overestimating it more than slightly. However, if the momentum does last (and I hope it will), the Wii U should see a noticeable improvement in sales.

Out of that entire list I see 3 – 4 games that would be interesting. Out of that small amount only two of those would interest me enough to bother playing again. Am I going to drop down $300 on a console for another Zelda or Xenoblade game? Nope. That’s not a good value for me. It might be a fine value for others but seems like a waste of my time.

I have a 3DS and enough interesting games to make it worthwhile. Most of what I’ve seen for the Wii U would have the same curse as most Wii games I tried. I’ll play it once and then it would collect dust after that. Shovel-ware. ;)

If Nintendo would give us a real sequel to the Gamecube without the gimmicks attached I’d be all over that. Ditch the motion controls, ditch the tablet (make it an option to use your 3DS instead), ditch the old hardware. Bring your 3rd party back with something other than pure crap shovel-ware.

Nintendo doesn’t really have much to offer the mid 20s demographic other than nostalgia for basement dwellers. That’s what the Wii U needs to overcome.

Ray C

I do think that you have a point that the main thing Nintendo has going for it is Nostalgia

Travis

Mario kart 8, bayonetta 2, and hyrule warriors, and smash, all in 2014 don’t interest you? You must not be a true gamer than.

Ooooh Yeeeeeah

Yes, Mario Kart, the game played by all true racing fans…..and plumbing fans.

LOL, son, go choke on a giant mushroom.

Rorshach Sridhar

Lol, if N4S is your ideal racing game, you’re a fucking retard.

Ooooh Yeeeeeah

WOW! What a a pile of shit. Mario, Donjey Kong, Zelda….yeahh! What is that like the 100th sequel?

hghhj

just like halo for xbone one ,thousand times over. the ps4 with the same repeat games…dumb shit….

hghhj

Wii u is the best system and xbone on is in trouble and sales are garbage and ps4 its nothing ,the games they showed for those systems are the same old thing…..Nintendo kicked everyone’s asses at the E3…….I got my ps3 for my movies ,so don’t need the 4……

Joe Newton

It’s apparent you own a wii u huh lol….over doing it a bit though

hghhj

I own one and its great , no I don’t think I am over doing it like others about the ps4 ……

Ooooh Yeeeeeah

You bought a PS3 just for movies? What a fucking moron. You know, there are other ways to play video that dont cost $400.

hghhj

your the fucking moron ,….I bought it at first for games you dumb white boy.,…but Nintendo is better for games….so don’t need the ps4…dumb fuck…..

Angel Ham

Back to the PS2 era. Nintendo is going to trail in last place with the most first party games that age well beyond the console’s lifetime and yet the HD twins are the ones that easily sell at least twice as much while flooding the market with games that are deemed stale one month after release. Gamers sure a masochists.

Mirimon

haha, this may be true.. But I am thinking it will continue to do better than the xb1 has thus far. Though most of what they showed were just copies of other games with a nintendo character plastered into it, and the majority of their small list of games won’t be out for another year, it has a far more diverse library than the xb1 offers. The renewed interest in almost ps3 visual development for the system will help it a lot. They should have done elderscrolls: zelda edition long ago (but they really couldn’t, since their hardware remained antiquated and incapable of such.).

Angel Ham

IIRC they said they plaster Mario over everything because the Mario brand sells.

Plus, Bethesda is one of those companies that have publicly stated that they have zero interest at all in developing game for the Nintendo devices. Besides, there’s no nude mods for the console versions of the Elder Scrolls games.

Mirimon

I mean in the sense of open world environments in games, they were pretty much a no-show until recently on nintendo systems.

James Humphrey

I got the chance to pick up a Wii U for $150, so I did get a much better deal than a lot of people out there. I would like to say that for my family the Wii U is a fantastic system for all of us. I’ve played Mario games for almost 30 years now and still enjoy them all. I have a PC for my Skyrim/Diablo fixes. My gf quite enjoys the new Mario Kart in the evenings and our 10yo takes great advantage of being able to play on the controller’s screen which is quite handy since I chose Pikmin as my free game. He’s been on it like crazy ever since. As far as time spent by all on a console, the Wii U has been a smash hit.

Sadly, I work in a store who dabbles in game systems and we have only had one customer in the last 6 months come in looking for a Wii U and that was a very religious elderly lady looking for games she could trust allowing her grandchildren to play. Most are looking for a PS4, while maybe 1 in 4 are looking for an XB1. I would love to see Nintendo make a comeback, but it isn’t happening in my area, ….yet. I’m blaming CoD.

Mark

In my area wii u is sold out at most stores! I just picked mine up and LOVE IT. im 34 and been pmaging nintendo since we got NES in 1986 and loves it when i was 6 and still live it today. They havent changed which is wat i love about nintendo. Ps4 and xbone are same old kille people shootem up games. Booooooring! Nintendo has been selling like crazy this past few weeks and its only getting better! Amazing games coming out this year too. Myself i cant wait for yoshi and toads first game! Oh and that new star fox!!!!

Honda Fan101

If you like the Wii U get it you can predict 90% of the titles (Mario, Kirby,Metroid, Zelda,…) that are going to be released for it every system cycle.Especially with most Third Parties not making games.To many people on here that can’t afford more than one console, so they like to take sides. Turn the Wii U around maybe by the end of it’s life cycle. Nintendo 3ds is extremely profitable, and it would take an Asteroid to take Nintendo out of the business. All these doom, and gloomers are finally quieting with Mario Kart, and E3 news.

Mark

Its crazy the past 8 MONTHS i kept reading nintendo doomed. Wii u is dead..blah blah blah. Now its all wii u is doing great. Nintendo is turning things around blah blah blah. I love flip floppers who literally doubted the greatist vid game company the world will ever see!!! Im def talking to u xboner fans and IGN D-BAGS. looks like nintendo is laughing now:)

digmigh

Why do I need a wii U to play Mariokart, Zelda, when my Wii, GameCube, N64, 3DS, DS, Gameboy and SNES will do the same?

smashbrolink

Because none of those games have Mario Kart 8 or Zelda U[that has the same quality of open-ended exploration as Skyrim did].
These are not the same games as back then, just like CoD, Uncharted, and every other franchise has changed a bit per installment.

Mirimon

skyrim on pc+mod=new zelda game, but with better graphics than new zelda game.

smashbrolink

Not even close to the same thing.
Skyrim is skyrim; it can never be Zelda, same as Zelda could never be Skyrim even if it becomes just as big in world size.

Mirimon

can always be a zelda game, a zelda game can never look as good as elderscrolls..

sexy spider

Well, a Zelda game can be finished. Unlike the buggy as hell Skyrim. And not have shit combat.

Mirimon

u had a bad skyrim? I soz bout that.. worked fine on my system, and came in HD from the start….

combat though…. well.. combat is fine, my issue is the complete lack of challenge with the AI…

BTW.. Destiny.. GREAT GAME..such addictive fun, good AI on top of graphics out of this world.. Destiny has raised the bar, and we likely won’t see it touched again for a while.

Rorshach Sridhar

Destiny hasn’t even come out yet dumbass.

Mirimon

oh… were you not able to participate in the “alpha” testing for pc and ps4 the other weekend?

check yourself before you wreck yourself, dumbass….

Rorshach Sridhar

Lol, only losers waste time on alpha and beta testing. If you’re that horny for a video game, then you have problems.

Mirimon

it’s a shame you couldn’t think of anything rational to argue with, and that you wouldn’t even be bothered to see what a game is like before buying it, let alone letting developers know if there is an issue they missed/did not realize was there.

thou argument twas made of dross, and I hath smote thee.

Rorshach Sridhar

That’s what reviewers are for dumbass.

Mirimon

sorry.. but since lego the movie scored a 96% on rotten tomatoes.. it would be wise not to follow the selected group of lemming leaders. They may be in line with the ideas and qualities of many people.. but there are several things which have received reviews contrary to one’s own opinions. Your inability, and lack of desire to form your own opinions, regardless of their validity, is what fuels destructive fads and fanaticism.

My recommendation is to start thinking for your self, and get an education, especially before continuing to call people dumbass when it is clearly you, the one who cannot think for themselves, a rather clueless twat.

I’m starting to think you are trolling…though your lack of mental acumen might certainly be real…it is exceptionally difficult to tell these days if one is dealing with a product of the “No Child Left Behind” act, poor genes, or a person who has yet to grasp the essence of comedy.

You may certainly post again, but your attempts thus far have been futile at best.

Rorshach Sridhar

Well that is true that critics aren’t always in tune with audiences, but they do point out obvious things found in alpha/beta testing like glitches/bugs/hiccups, etc…Also, we have demos available online for one to watch and get an idea of what they like.

I apologize for the ad hominems, but you have to understand that weak people feel stronger on the internet so that’s just the person I’ve become here unfortunately.

I’m glad that someone else hates No Child Left Behind. My high school used to be in the top 100 of the country. Now it’s not even in the top 100 of its own state, and that’s all b/c of NCLB.

Mirimon

though I do own and operate my own electronics store, for the last 31 years, I simply refuse to purchase a game just because of its title, and much more so in the last 10 years simply because way too many lemons were sold off under the names of once-good ip’s…. given the high amount of shovelware and lack of ingenuity, along with rather high pricing in a time when the global economy isn’t doing soo hot, I would think any gamer would be more prudent when it came to game purchases.

If the game does not host a pre-trial period, or alpha/beta sessions, then I usually play test one I get in shipping, and then of course have my employees do the same so that we can critically assess the reality of the product being sold and it allows my staff to better facilitate a customer’s purchasing desires and needs. Playing every game ever being released also allows me a greater perspective for my own reviews published in a few periodicals. But, going back to my store, I simply refuse to sell my patrons bad products… which is one of the factors that has kept me having a rather large, loyal customer base spanning 9 cities and towns (and a military installation) and forced stores like best buy and gamestop to downsize and/or leave town all together… my closest “competition” is over an hour away…

Rorshach Sridhar

I think I’m entering that phase as a gamer where you stop purchasing based on a title alone, though I admit I’m stupid for not doing so earlier. I was disappointed by Assassin’s Creed III and Arkham Origins despite loving the series they’re a part of, and games that were recommended to me b/c of the hype their names had, like Kingdom Hearts and God of War, I disliked as well.

I understand, as a retailer, why you would need to alpha/beta test, but as a consumer I feel like I can trust reviewers and gameplay demos well enough.

smashbrolink

I disagree; the art style for the new Zelda outstrips Elderscrolls, no matter how much more power the processors fueling its extra particle effects has.
But that’s beside the point; it’s going to be a great game that Elder Scrolls cannot compare to directly.
ES isn’t going to kill off the new Zelda no matter how pretty it looks. You’ll just have to deal with that.

don’t get me wrong, I will play it.. I have to to give it a fair shake…. but it is clearly a carbon copy from what we can see of it atm. Hopefully this puts Zelda back into that refreshing adventuring feeling.

Trim Dose

oh please don’t stain the PS3 with the garbage that the Wii U is. The Wii U problem is a total different thing, hell not even PS3 had this problem, PS3 sold out even at 599 dollars, I mean it got a freaking PS2 included.

eXaLpHaXe

Not sure if you even know what happen way back owning a ps3 in 2006, the PS3 suffer as much as the Wii U did when it was released, PS3 back then has near to no games because some of the reasons are

1. most of their ps2 developers are scared to invest that much money in an over its time gaming console and programming games for its is a lil complicated with its hardware back then, this is why 3rd party games like Bioshock and Oblivion took a year to come to PS3, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 took five years and one year, respectively, DLC for Fallout 3, GTA IV, and Call of Duty came late on PS3.

2. Microsoft made tons of deals with 3rd party developers to make only for xbox exclusive. though there are still tons of playstation exclusive, Big fan of God of War, Final Fantasy or Gran Turismo? You’ll have to wait until 2010.

3. The Wii hype covered the PS3

4. They made their console in a big fancy high tect home entertaiment syetem, which works now but back then is that games still haven’t really crashed mainstream media yet, most people don’t think of systems as being able to do anything else besides play games, so they aren’t going to buy something they personally won’t use, yes it has a ps2 hardware built into it but, a 599$ console, limited ps2 games could be played and blue ray disc price tag is over its time. Also because they view them primarily for children, most doting parents will purchase the cheapest product for their kids (the Wii).

Yeah, its not fun having a ps3 for the first few years until 2010 happens, so kudos the Sony admit its failure and change, hope the Wii U will make the change too.

Trim Dose

” PS3 back then has near to no games because some of the reasons are” <– Yes it didn't have many games, but this didn't stop PS3 selling and thats the problem for the Wii U, the console is not selling. PS3 keep its momentum thanks to the Blu ray player it was the cheapest BR player at moments. The MK8 sold more than a million units but the Wii U base is like 6.5 millions, and thats a very low number, MK8 help to sell some consoles but insignificant. The Wii U can only rely on games and thats the main problems there are no games. so You think 1 game gonna save them ? well keep thinking then, PS3 maybe at same moment didn't have too many games, but it had a PS2 and Blu ray included. When they announce the PS3 it was no longer be BC, the 60 GB literally sold out in a matter of minutes, than the PS3 80 GB MGS4 BC too bundle comes in and bang sold out in a matter of minutes.

The PS3 it has its bad months but years never, 360 had a year start all by itself and still the PS3 pass it.

Almost forgetting the Wii U is struggling not only because of games is because also of the low hardware specs, Nintendo have their horrible set of rules in order to a developers put a game on their console so add this to the low specs bag, so what are third parties seeing with this?, "the hell with this console, low specs, horribly third party support, games don't sell, why I should even try, a total waste of money", <— seriously this is not rocket science.

Mr. Obvious

The specs aren’t even that bad?! It has been PROVEN that the Wii U is more powerful than last gen hardware by about 40-50%. It FAR surpasses them…

Mirimon

er.. no.. actually.. even next gen systems are only slightly more powerful than the Cell, which only recently started to see games optimized for it’s use in the last 3 years.

Mr. Obvious

I’m intrigued. Please, tell me more. Also I don’t know what to say if this was an actual reply to my comment. Either A. i’m not smart enough and/or not thinking clearly or B. your reply got bugged.

Mirimon

the Cell in the ps3 is pretty fancy, but far too complicated to code for. None the less.. it’s powerful enough to be used for building super computers (there is a history of this). While the wii-u is an improvement over the wii, and a decent attempt to get on line with other platforms, it’s still dreadfully underpowered.
in terms of total potential performance output, the consoles are ranked thus:
ps4>ps3>xb1>wii-u>xbox360

that though, takes nothing else into consideration such as additional firmware optimization and optimized coding from the developers on the games being played. That said.. the wii-u is easier to code for than the ps3, but lack of hardware capability severely stunts the potential a game has on that platform, hence why multiplats are usually not seen on that system.

if by no games, you mean more than twice as many at launch than the wii-u currently has after being out this long, then yeah..
if by no games you mean not being able to continue playing the last library of games at launch (which is thousands of games).. then yeah.. no games

Kamille

the PS3 always sold well, it always had games (contrary to what many people said at the time), it always had the hardware it was just simply expensive. But the Wii U has way many more issues than just its price. The Wii U’s selling worse than the Dreamcast and because of its hardware it will be missing on a massive amounts of games by next year. Then we have the useless and gigantic controller that drain all the battery in like an 1 hour and the fact that only 1 can be used at a time.

Nintendo fanboys keep crying because that’s all you guys can do at this point because I doubt anything will save the Wii U, not even 20 more Zelda and Mario games. As for me I’m really tired of Nintendo franchises, just give me Batman, Dragon Age, The Witcher, Destiny, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat X, Rainbow Six Siege, Bloodborne, Uncharted, The Division and I’ll be a very happy gamer for a long time.

Rorshach Sridhar

Lol, aside from Batman, all those franchises suck now.

Josh101

You’re from the future?!? You played the Division, Bloodborne and the new Mortal Kombat already? Mind=blown./s Idiot…

Rorshach Sridhar

Who the fuck are you talking to?

Josh101

I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking at you. Like a special education teacher speaks to it’s class. Because you are a idiot. :)

Mirimon

not this guy again… this is why people should pass certain certifications before being allowed to get on the internet….

Aiddon

probably; Nintendo is pretty much immortal at this point and due to how absurdly diverse their lineups keep getting they’re becoming even stronger. 2014 is looking to be a good year and 2015 even better than that.

Mark

zelda looks great!!

Makkahn Mack

Wii U may Survive, Just Razor Thin. But if All the Ideas, New IP games, Etc that Nintendo Revealed at E3, does Succeed, Wii U may actually do a Genuine Sincere 180.

Rikouvel Jachaure

Just bought a Wii U today, and honestly i’m gonna say I don’t know what I was missing. I’m lovin’ it!

Tiina Kallio

Then stop spelling doom for Nintendo. People are doing it in every damn generation and each time proven wrong. It’s getting beyond stupid, annoying and baseless. Of course the console sells better when the games arrive. The Wii U had a bad first year, but so what? That time is over.

Robert W. Burnham

A Zelda game that takes its inspiration from Skyrim sounds like exactly the sort of Zelda game I have been waiting for. While I doubt we will be able to customize the look of Link, I hope they allow for a lot of skill customization, much like the Elder Scrolls series. Also, if they could ease up on the 3D platforming, which has single-handedly ruined the Zelda series for me, that would be nice.

A game like that could sell a lot of systems. It’s a bold move for the series, but that’s exactly what Nintendo needs to do. The last time the Zelda series was a real RPG was Zelda 2, which was an excellent game with some unique design choices, the likes of which have not been seen in the series since.

Plus, if the game does well, a good follow up would be another open-world game but with Zelda as the protagonist.

http://games-m.com/ taita yassine

The PS4 already has a 1 in 12 return rate as of last month. Sony and Microsoft both got gunned down at E3 with pretty much every new release they have coming out next year It’s sad that it sold on hype alone.. The Sony and Microsoft conventions at E3 pretty much doomed the consoles in terms of keeping their Hype. At least Nin HAS the first parties now, they have the announcements out for their releases this year AND they have the price advantage. I have a PS4 and the thing just collects dust =/ I’ll probably trade it in by the end of the month. I don’t need a fancy Blue Ray player that just HAPPENS to play games, games that don’t exist and won’t exist for another year and a half.Plus I can watch netflix on my GamePad :D http://www.jeuxgratuit7.com/

John Kadow

After Q4 2015, Nintendo is simply going to own the market. Sony and MS are going to be out of the race with their best titles already released and Nintendo is just now starting to ramp with the heavy hitting items like SMB, Zelda, and Starfox. They’re already adding a ton of great games like Donkey Kong, COD, Darksiders 2, and the Wonderful 101.

The wii u has a reg Wii inside of it ,You can play all your old wii games on the wii u , The WIi u had more than enough power to out perform the weaker xbox one . Wii u memory bandwidth 560 gbs xbox one 170 gbs , The Wii u natively runs 1080P 60 fps , The Xbox one has to upscale to reach anything 1080P which it has a very hard time maintaining once it does hit 1080P . I sick and tired of people constantly out right falsely posting the Wii U strength unrealistically .
The xbox one is the NOT NEXT GEN CONSOLE it is a glorified xbox 360 .

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